James’ Pick 15 Preview ft. Palace vs Leicester

We will always be going for the Jackpot of £800,000 with a maximum of 64 lines (£128.00 stake).

We will not Cash Out – we will not fold to pressure – we will win this thing!

Exciting week of football last week, in which we saw Man City defeated for the first time this season by Chelsea and we saw Liverpool take the top spot when they pummelled Bournemouth, something that weirdly the bookies were not confident of.

Each week I will be highlighting some fixtures as bankers – games which carry my maximum confidence – and will be tallying up my success rate on these.

Last week I picked a massive 3 bankers and as if there was ever any doubt ALL OF THE BANKERS CAME IN! – Derby, Spurs and Atalanta (all of them away picks too)

A 4-0 drubbing by Liverpool will have given Bournemouth’s confidence a dent despite the quality of the opposition and Wolves built on their surprise win at Chelsea with a win over Newcastle. It seems the wind is with Wolves at the moment so I will back them, but at some point soon Bournemouth are going to bounce back and this might just be the match they do it in.

Palace gave me a little scare last week when they went 1-0 up but West Ham was a confident selection and they proved themselves to be stronger. With home advantage they might put Leicester to the test, but I fancy City to spring back from their bruising against Spurs and this looks very winnable for them.

I expected more from Newcastle against Wolves and to be fair they didn’t lose until after they’d gone down to 10 men. It’s uncertain how much the absence of Yedlin might affect Newcastle and it’s possible he might play if Newcastle’s appeal is successful. Newcastle are the stronger team and were starting to put things together. I’m going to gamble on them returning to winning ways against weaker opposition, but back the draw as a safety net.

Blackburn are strong favourites here with the bookies which seems strange to me, as although they are on the same number of points in the table, Birmingham have looked much better when I’ve seen them play. For this reason I’m backing the away team, but I will give the bookies a little credit (and because the Championship is unpredictable).

Those that backed Brentford for promotion this season must be wondering what on earth is going on. Well the truth is they are being edged out by better opposition, with the likes of Swansea, Sheff Utd and Middlesbrough beating them by a single goal. Hull are less good, but their performances of late have shown some quality, notably the 3-2 away win at QPR. Something tells me this will be high scoring and could tip either way.

Middlesbrough have had a few hiccups in the last few matches and QPR have struggled to find a win too. Besic, who’s on loan from Everton for Middlesbrough will miss this game through suspension for a red card, but I think Middlesbrough will be fighting hard to win this so they can stay in touch with the leaders.

I’ve been punting on Norwich for a while and they are in the middle of a mighty run. Bristol are strong and won’t roll over, but Teemu Pukki has the back of the net trembling in his wake and I expect Norwich to put at least one more away than the home team.

Nantes are favourites here for the bookies but I see no reason for that other than them being at home. Montpellier struggled to find the net against Lille, but Lille have one of the best defences in the league. Not so for Nantes who’ve let in twice as many goals as Montpellier so far.

Sassuolo will be very confident that they can get a result against Frosinone. Frosinone have only won once this campaign and that was when I bet against them of course (sigh), but lightening doesn’t strike twice (cowers under a rock).

Nimes are building up a run of convincing wins and there are niggles showing for Lille. Anyone who reads this blog will know I love to back the draw in Ligue 1, but I can see this for a win either way, depending on who shows up on form.

Marseille really know how to put them away (they are only bettered by PSG), but it’s also Christmas time for anyone who plays them, because they leak a lot of goals too. Bordeaux are decent and strong defensively but this really should be a banker for the home team.